This chapter is from the book

A hallmark feature of quarkxpress is its ability to handle text. You can start by importing text from other programs such as Word, or by typing all the text in QuarkXPress yourself. Text is primarily contained within individual text boxes or flows through a series of linked text boxes. You can also flow text along a path and enter it in table cells. Once text is in QuarkXPress, you have precise control over its placement within text boxes, including creating columns and snapping lines to a baseline grid.

Text in QuarkXPress does not need to be final—word processing features, which include the ability to checking spelling and perform search-and-replace operations, allow you to make the inevitable edits that occur in any review and proofing process. (Be sure that writers and editors know to stop editing their word processing files after handing them off to you.) For editing or repurposing, you can export text from a layout and choose among a variety of formats.

Importing and entering text

Most of the text you’ll work with in QuarkXPress comes from a word processor. You can drag these files into a QuarkXPress layout or import them through File > Import. You can also type new text and paste text copied to the clipboard as necessary. It’s important to remember that in QuarkXPress, text is primarily contained by text boxes and it is always edited with the Text Content tool .

Creating text boxes

QuarkXPress offers various methods for creating boxes to contain text. First, you can click and drag the Text Content tool to create a rectangular text box (Figure 4.1). You can also a create no-content box with any of the tools in the Rectangle Box tool’s pop-out menu and then double-click the box with the Text Content tool to convert it to a text box. In fact, you can double-click any QuarkXPress item, such as a straight or curved line, with the Text Content tool and enable it to contain text.

Figure 4.2 The Import dialog box lets you select text files to import and specify how quotation marks, dashes, and styles in the text are handled.

You have two options for the file you choose to import: Convert Quotes and Include Style Sheets. Check Convert Quotes to convert straight quotes (") to curly typographer’s quotes (“”) and to convert double hyphens (--) into em dashes (—). Check Include Style Sheets to import styles applied in the word processor with the text. (Include Style Sheets also converts Quark’s XPress Tags into actual formatting.) If the text doesn’t fit in the box, the overflow symbol displays in the lower-right corner of the text box. You can resize the box or link it to other boxes.

Tip: Importing Word 2007 Files

You cannot currently import text from Word 2007 (.docx format). To import these files into QuarkXPress, save them from Microsoft Word in Word 97 format (File > Save As > Format).

Importing files with drag and drop

To quickly import text, you can drag a file from your desktop into a layout (Figure 4.3). The text is imported according to the last settings used in the Import dialog box for Convert Quotes and Include Style Sheets. If you release the mouse button when the pointer is over a text box, the new text is inserted into the box (within any existing text). Otherwise, QuarkXPress creates a text box to contain the text. Click within margin and column guides to create a box of those dimensions. If the text doesn’t fit in the box, the overflow symbol displays in the lower-right corner of the text box. See the “Linking and unlinking” section later in this chapter.

Figure 4.3 At left, a Word document is dragged from the desktop to the upper-left column of the page. At right, a text box is created within the margin and column guides to contain the text.

Entering text

To enter text by typing or pasting, click on any box, line, or table cell with the Text Content tool . The text insertion point appears and shows where text will be inserted (Figure 4.4).

Figure 4.4 Click any empty box with the Text Content tool to convert it to a text box. Start entering text at the text insertion point.